


the one who got away

by tielan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2016-04-16
Packaged: 2018-06-02 13:57:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6568975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He vaguely remembers the joke – about Hills on The Hill, and— “You’re the one who got away.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	the one who got away

**Author's Note:**

> A while back on Tumblr, I let people list an AU and a pairing. blinkbackatear selected 'Modern Royalty AU' and CaptainHill. While it might have been kind of fun creating some tiny European monarchy, I decided I'd go for the modern American equivalent.
> 
> There were plans for more to this - drinks, friendship, sexytimes, etc. - but I never got past this scene. So it's just a snippet.

When Steve’s shown into the waiting room for Senator Hill, he’s a little surprised to see a woman already there.

She looks up and their eyes meet, blue to blue. His own age, maybe a few years either way. Cool and composed in a crisply-cut dress that exudes elegance, with long slim legs and ice-pick heels. Her mouth curves briefly in a polite smile, before her tablet buzzes, and she types in an answer to whoever’s just contacted her.

Steve feels a little dismissed, but given the way every inch of her bearing and dress screams ‘moneyed professional’ he’s not surprised. Why would a woman like that give a guy like him a second glance?

He can’t help giving her a second glance, though. He didn’t see too many women in Afghanistan – well, one doesn’t in a holding cell. Those he did see he only glimpsed from a distance, and they were nothing like her.

She flips the lid of the tablet closed, settles back in her seat and holds out one hand “Maria Hill.” Her handshake is brisk and firm; forthright, like her speech. The skin of her palm isn’t soft, but it’s not calloused or rough like his own. “You’re Steve Rogers – the Army photojournalist who’s been in Afghanistan.”

“A tactful way of putting it,” considering he spent seven years not sure if he’d make it out alive. He studies her face a moment – he knows the Senator has three sons, but he didn’t think there was a daughter. He takes a stab in the dark. “Senator Hill is your uncle?”

“And my grandfather.” There’s a moment where Steve can’t quite work out how that goes, before she adds, “The _other_ Senator Hill.”

He vaguely remembers the joke – about Hills on The Hill, and— “You’re the one who got away.” He winces. “Sorry, that’s—”

“—pretty accurate, actually. I did my lawyering and my politics dissertation, and then I ran away from home.” She shrugged. “As running away goes, I got a decent distance.”

“But you’re back now.”

“Mostly because they don’t listen when I’m halfway across the world.” The words are simple, but the clipped edges of them suggest a very complex set of undertones. Steve finds himself intrigued by them, and maybe too much of that shows, because she glances over at him and seems to decide that she’s going to keep talking. “I work with a refugee aid group in Turkey, but every now and then they need someone to go over the border and do interviews in Syria.”

He scrambles back through his memory of the news, vaguely remembering the buzz of talk while he was in the base near Baghdad. “The Ar Raqqah hospital bombing.”

“Correct.” The word is quiet, like the hush of noise between bombings.

Steve feels the sudden urge to climb under the marble-topped table by the door and brace for battle. As the door opens and the Senator’s aide steps through with an oily smile, he wonders that the man doesn’t feel the tension. Or maybe he does and he’s just ignoring it.

“Maria. I’m glad you’re back on US soil again.”

“Oh, shut it, Jasper.” Her words are clipped. “So is he going to see me, or does Captain Rogers have priority?”

“You know how this goes, Maria,” Jasper is apologetic. “You’re family.”

“I don’t mind—” Steve begins to say, but she waves him in ahead of her.

“I do. Better that he’s in a good frame of mind to receive you than a bad one after seeing me,” she says with a faint smile. “It was a pleasure talking, Captain.”

“The pleasure was all mine,” Steve tells her as he stands and lets his gaze linger on her for a smiling moment before following Jasper into the Senator’s office.

 

 


End file.
